A Voice in the Night by: Jennifer Brown
As I grew up, I was always drawn to
stories of haunted houses, or unexplained things my family and
friends had seen or heard. A part of me questioned it and always
reminded myself of the old adage told to every young child as they
are growing up—there are no such things as ghosts.
My mom talked about seeing an image of
Jesus when my grandfather died. My grandmother talked about lying in
bed and hearing the door to her basement shut and hearing someone
walk through her living room and seeing a figure standing near her
bed. I heard these stories and more growing up and they chilled me to
the bone. I never believed any of it was possible or existed, even
though my mom swore up and down she never imagined it.
That changed the night my grandmother
died. I woke up in the middle of the night, hearing something. It was
three or four in the morning, because I remember looking at the time
on the VCR. What I heard had my skin crawling and my blood chilling.
It was a voice I had heard often in the middle of the night as my
grandmother was living with us while my mom took care of her. All I
remember thinking at the time is, “No, this can't be right. I did
not just hear grandma calling for mom. She's dead!”
The voice was calm and collected as it
sometimes was. Most of the time my grandmother would be screaming at
the top of her lungs. She suffered from dementia, and would get very
wound up. But what I heard that night was her simply and softly
calling my mother's name.
Part of me wanted to get up. Part of
me was frozen to the spot. After getting up the next morning and
confirming with my mom that she had felt a presence in the house
after falling asleep in the living room around that same time, my
beliefs were forever changed.
So far, this has been the first and
only time in my life I can honestly say I believe in spirits and
paranormal activity. It was enough to change my mind, that there was
the possibility it exists.
To this day, I do still wonder what I
may have seen if I had gotten up to look. As I write about this now,
there is part of my heart that believes it was my grandmother's way
of saying good bye, that she was at peace finally. Either way, I am
glad it happened because it was a chance to experience what I had
only heard from others and been frightened by. Yes, it was
frightening but if it was truly her spirit bidding us good bye I
wouldn't trade the moment for the world.
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Wow! In a way it is chilling to hear that, but I think the same as you. Maybe it was your grandmother saying goodbye. That way you all were at peace. Great story and thank you for being on my blog. Happy Halloween.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
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